Our Stories

Old records used to lie in dusty corners in Kanchanpur, a district in far-west Nepal. Now they have become part of the digital revolution. Kanchanpur is one of the areas in this mountainous country most dedicated to using information technology to modernize public administration and promote local development.

Nepalese civil society organizations meeting in Kathmandu recently pledged to support efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and to monitor both their own and the Government's activities in doing so.

Santa Bahadur Bogati of Sindhukot- 4, Sindhupalchok, one of the micro entrepreneurs badly affected by the April 25 earthquake is already back in his business. He epitomizes the resilience of Nepalese society.

Rita Bogati is well-known figure in Sindhuli, Western Nepal. She is 36 years old, active member of National Micro Entrepreneurs' Federation Nepal (NMEFEN) and also chairs District Micro-Entrepreneurs' Group Association (DMEGA) in Sindhuli. She has garment fabric shop in Lampantar Village Development Committee, Sindhuli and a local boutique with 50 employees, most of them women. District Development Committee (DDC) of Sindhuli has awarded her as successful women entrepreneur.. But people also know her as a woman who has fought for her rights, undertaken challenges, overcome difficulties and made her own identity in the area of micro-enterprise.

Sunita Chaudhary, 35, of Darakh VDC-5 in Kailali district was a victim of domestic abuse, and suffered from the same helplessness and insecurity that many women in Nepal are faced with as a result of gender inequality in household matters. Finally, after being thrown out of her home, along with her son, Sunita sought help.

November 2005; The growth of urban area of Nepal over the recent years has brought about corresponding challenges in urban governance. As the crucial relationship between good governance and development become ever more apparent, there is an urgent need on part of the development agencies to focus more on enhancing the capabilities of local governance. The transparency attributes of good governance has many ramifications that touch upon discipline accountability and efficiency aspects of local government functions.

February 2008; With the new date for the Constituent Assembly(CA) election rescheduled for 10 April 2008, the Election Commission (EC) has requested UNDP to re-open the 'Electoral Observation Resource Centre,' as a matter of urgency.

March 2008; The Electoral Observation Resource Centre(EORC), established in early February 2008 to assist the Election Commission, is coordinating the observation work for domestic and international electoral observation groups. The EORC is serving as a clearing house and centralized repository of essential election-related information and resource materials. It has, so far, accredited more than 600 international electoral observers and 43,000 domestic observers .

April 2008; The Government of Nepal (GoN) has decided to replicate the performance based grant system in all 75 District Development Committees linking the results of the performance assessment with its own development grant.

March 2009; Children aged between 5 and 15 years are reciting the holy Quran in their madrasa (Muslim school) in Tulsiyahi Nikash village, Dhanusha. Since 2007 this madrasa has been housed in a new building constructed with support from UNDP's Quick Impact for Peace Support Initiative programme (QIPSI). Until then the school had been based in a rented room as the Government had not responded to the community's many pleas to improve the school. Neither was the school officially recognised'meaning that it could not follow the regular curriculum.

July 2009; Gajari, a village located in one of the remote green hills of Baitadi district in the far-west Nepal looks serene and beautiful from afar. However, life for the people of this village is one hundred years behind. It is one of the many backward villages where almost 100% women are illiterate. Only the old, the women and children are left in the village as 90% of the men are working in India or elsewhere as migrant labourers. They go in search of work because the yield from their small fields is not sufficient to feed the family for 12 months.

September 2009; The garbage collectors are active from 6 o'clock in the morning in Hatkhola Chowk, the residential area of Biratnagar municipality. The collectors work for the Forum for Social Improvement and Environmental Development (FoSIED)' a private sector company working with the municipality to manage the solid waste. The population of Biratnagar is 1,80,138 and 60 metric tonnes of garbage are produced every day. The garbage collectors work for 4 hours daily to collect garbage from market places and residential areas.

December 2010; The Badalamjee village located at a distance of 16 kms from the district headquarters of Dailekh was suffering due to lack of proper health services. The patients, mainly the pregnant mothers suffered during child birth due to the dilapidated condition of the old sub health post lacking basic facilities such as electricity, water, proper delivery room and the irregular presence of health attendants.

December 2010; Lack of efficient justice system makes it difficult for the people especially in the rural areas of Nepal to avail justice on time and in the prolonged process makes it very expensive also.

At the Citizen Awareness Center hall in Prastoka VDC, Bara district, a group of people are gathered to discuss women’s safety and security issues in the village. A facilitator asks some basic questions, “Where do you feel unsafe in your VDC?” and “What changes would help you feel safer?”

February 2009; The Centre for Constitutional Dialogue (CCD) in three weeks time since its opening has already hosted approximately 650 visitors, most of them being the members of Constituent Assembly and civil society. Until now, 92 CA members have signed up for the computer training and 75 have signed up for Basic English training. These classes are expected to start in March 2009.

September 2009; The Jana Utthan Public Library of Palpa district has adopted a new and interesting way of making the information materials accessible to the general public. The books are now being carried in doko by the potters to certain areas where people can assemble and read.

August 2010; Jaidhan settlement of Kuntibandali, one of the acute water diarrhoea affected villages among the 15 Village Development Committees of Achham'one of the remote districts of Nepal, now has access to clean drinking water.

December 2010; The UNDP Enhancing Access to Justice for Consolidation of Peace in Nepal Project (A2J) project is maximising its efforts to increase the number of women in the judicial sector. In order to encourage more women to join this sector, the project has been organising one month long preparatory Bar Council exam training classes for the women candidates. Recently the project organised this training for 23 women law graduates. The result was overwhelming, all of them passed!